THE AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER
STUDY GUIDE
A Midsummer Night's
Dream
TABLE OF CONTENTS
6
10
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Inside This Guide
Shakespeare Timeline
Shakespeare's Staging Conditions
Playgoer's Guide
Stuff That Happens
Director's Notes
Who's Who
Character Connections
Discovery Space Questions
Basics
19
21
31
35
38
44
49
55
63
72
75
76
79
80
82
88
100
103
105
107
109
114
115
118
120
122
Getting Them on Their Feet
Line Assignments
Choices
Verse and Prose
Handout #1 – Scansion Guidelines
Paraphrasing
R.O.A.D.S. to Rhetoric
Handout #2 – R.O.A.D.S. Guidelines
Elizabethan Classroom
Asides and the Audience
Handout #3 – Asides Diagram
Teacher's Guide – Asides Diagram
Staging Challenges: Titania’s Bower
Metrical Explorations: Magical Meter
Handout #4A-F (2.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.2)
Teacher’s Guide
Perspectives: Courtship
Handout #5 – Historical Perspectives
on Courtship and Betrothal
Handout #6 – Lysander vs. Demetrius
(1.1)
Handout #7 – Doves and Griffins
(2.1, 2.2)
Teacher’s Guide
Textual Variants: Speech Prefixes
Handout #8A-C: Quarto and Folio
(5.1)
Staging Challenges: Actors Playing
Actors
Handout #9A – A Play Fitted (1.2)
Handout #9B – Marvelous Convenient
(3.3)
124
128
142
145
149
151
152
157
159
160
163
167
168
Handout #10A-D – ‘Pyramus and
Thisbe’ (5.1)
Teacher’s Guide
Perspectives: Fairies
Handout #11 – Fairies in Literature
ShakesFear: Writing Exercises
Production Choices
Handout #12 – Doubling Chart
Handout #13 – Editing Guidelines
Handout #14 – Line Count Worksheet
Film in the Classroom
SOL Guidelines
Common Core State Standards
Bibliography
CHARACTER CONNECTIONS
Theseus
Philostrate
Lysander
Color Key:
Love
Blood
Fealty
Friendship
Mechanicals:
Nick Bottom
Peter Quince
Francis Flute
Snug
Tom Snout
Robin Starveling
Hippolyta
Egeus
Hermia
Demetrius
Helena
Oberon
Titania
Puck
Peasblossom
Cobweb
Moth
Mustardseed
R.O.A.D.S. to Rhetoric -- First 100 Lines
1.1
Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants
THESEUS
Now, [fair Hippolyta], our nuptial hour
A - address
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, [O], [methinks], how slow
~~ ~~~~
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
A – exclamatory; superfluous
R – "moon"
S – verb form (intransitive to transitive)
S – personification of moon & simile
5
Long withering out a young man's revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
~~~~~~~~~
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
↕
~~~~~~~~~
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
~~~~~~~~~~
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
S – personification of days and nights
D – arranging contrast (day/night)
R – "will quickly"
S – simile
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
10
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS

Go, [Philostrate],
D – shift in object of speech
A - address
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
~~~~~~~~~
The pale companion is not for our pomp.

[Hippolyta], I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
R – structure (imperatives)
S – personification of melancholy
R – "p"
D – shift in object of speech
A – address
O – "I"
O – "by"
15
THE BASICS
Asides and Audience Contact
Shakespeare often leaves characters onstage by themselves. Sometimes these characters are working through an
issue, sometimes they are letting the audience see what they are thinking (but aren’t able to talk about in front of
other characters), sometimes they are letting the audience in on a secret. These moments in which characters have
“no one else to talk to” (except the audience in an early modern theatre) have been interpreted throughout their
performance histories in various ways. In modern, proscenium productions, actors and directors bring them to life
as an explication of the character’s inner thoughts—sort of “thinking aloud” or “to oneself” moments. In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some of the speeches were simply cut or re-arranged or staged differently. In
Shakespeare’s lifetime, though, the speeches would have had a different life. They would have been opportunities
for the characters to engage with the audience, to bring them into the story, to ask questions (and possibly, receive
answers). In this workshop/activity, your students will examine two conventions of Shakespeare’s plays that allow
the soliloquy’s in the dramas to become conversations rather than internal musings: asides and audience contact.
Asides
Every student of Shakespeare who has read a modern edition of his plays will recognize the word “aside,” but not
every student will necessarily recognize its meaning.
Brainstorm:
Ask your students: How would you define the word aside?
The Oxford English Dictionary shows that it wasn’t until 1727 that the word took on these meanings:
● “Words spoken aside or in an undertone, so as to be inaudible to some person present;
● words spoken by an actor, which the other performers, on the stage are supposed not to hear.”
Notice that it doesn’t say who is supposed to hear. We assume the audience will be the “auditors” but in many
playhouses the audience, who is sitting in the dark, in front of the stage, may not be the obvious choice.
Audience Contact
If a character is engaging the audience often and in “privileging” ways, then the audience can become an ally -which means the audience can also become a conspirator of sorts, complicit in a villain’s crimes or a lover’s
schemes. You will want to look at several scenes to determine when a character is talking to the audience and when
s/he might be forging those connections.
Using the First 100 Lines
● Place students in groups (as many as there are characters).
● Give them the First 100 Lines of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
● Ask them to go through the scene (or a section of it) and mark up the text according to what kinds of asides
and audience contact they think are most appropriate, according to the following key:
○ Fill in the brackets:
■1=casting the audience
● Making the audience members into characters who have an implied involvement in
the scene or in the greater world of the play. They may be named or unnamed, but
must be specific identities.
● Examples: Henry V casting the audience as his army, Portia and Nerissa (in The
Merchant of Venice) picking out specific audience members to represent suitors
■2=allying with the audience
● Making audience members colleagues or co-conspirators, looking to the audience for
support or affirmation
METRICAL EXPLORATION
Magical Meter
As Verse and Prose (page 35) showed you, Shakespeare primarily wrote in iambic pentameter – lines of ten
syllables, broken into five beats, in an unstressed-stressed pattern. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, he
breaks this regularity. Frequently, he uses an alternate form called trochaic tetrameter: lines of only four feet, in a
stressed-unstressed pattern. Often, this form becomes catalectic, leaving off the unstressed syllable from the final
foot. See the example below, when Oberon enchants Titania's eyes:
'
˘
'
˘
'
˘
'
What thou | seest when | thou dost | wake,
' ˘
' ˘
'
˘
'
Do it | for thy | true-love | take,
'
˘
' ˘
' ˘
'
Love and | languish | for his | sake.
This form often shows up when magic is in use: when charms are cast or lifted, when Oberon or Puck applies the
love-juice to someone's eyes, or when someone calls for music. The character of Puck also frequently slips into this
form even when not directly working magic. The unusual pattern is a cue that something different is going on. The
audience hears a shift in the way people are talking. Even if they don't specifically know that the verse has changed
from iambic pentameter to trochaic tetrameter, they can't help but be aware of an audible difference. Trochaic
tetrameter has a more sing-songy tone than the even measures of iambic pentameter.
In this activity, your students will explore the various forms of verse presented in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Activity:
 Break your students into groups for the following scenes:
o #4A: 2.1 – Puck, Fairy
o #4B: 2.1 – Oberon, Titania, Puck, attendant fairies (at least one for Titania's train)
o #4C: 3.2 – Oberon, Puck, Demetrius (sleeping)
o #4D: 4.1 – Oberon, Puck, Titania, Bottom (sleeping)
o #4E: 5.1-5.2 – Theseus, Oberon, Puck, Titania, attendant fairies (at least one for Titania's train)
o #4F: 5.2 – Oberon, Puck, Titania, attendant fairies (at least one for Titania's train)
 Give each group the corresponding Handout #4A-#4F.
o Note that these scenes have been cut for length.
 Have each group scan their lines, looking and marking for the following:
o Shifts from iambic pentameter to trochaic tetrameter.
o Rhyming.
o Caesuras.
o Other metrical irregularities.
o Indications for music or dancing.
 Each group should prepare a staging of their scene, making the following choices:
o Acting choices informed by the scansion.
 Use the Teacher's Guide (page 80) to help them find these opportunities during their staging.
o How to demonstrate "magic" in use – whether through gestures, a different way of moving, a
musical cue, or something else.
PERSPECTIVES
Courtship and Match-Making
Activity 1: Consent and Contracts
In the first scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Egeus comes to Duke Theseus with the complaint that his daughter
Hermia refuses to marry the man he has chosen for her, Demetrius. Hermia prefers Lysander, another young man
of Athens, who claims to be "as well derived" and as wealthy as Demetrius. Since Hermia stubbornly refuses to
relent, Egeus seeks Theseus's permission either to force her to wed Demetrius or to put her to her death according
to "the ancient privilege of Athens." Theseus quickly offers Hermia a third alternative, that of going into a convent
and taking an eternal vow of chastity.
Though the story is set in mythical Greece, the courtship rituals, like most of the social customs depicted in
Shakespeare's plays, more nearly resemble those of early modern England. After all, Shakespeare's plays were all
staged in what was then modern clothing, portrayed as "now" no matter when they were historically set. His
audience would have interpreted circumstances based on their own experience of marriage-making, not based on
the historical realities of ancient Athens. (The exception is probably the death threat, though Theseus's hasty
amendment undercuts its power almost immediately and may imply that Egeus has demonstrated insupportable
extremity in invoking an obsolete law).
Parental Consent, Then and Now
 First, give your students Handout #5: Historical Perspectives on Courtship
 Discuss the making of marriage in early modern England.
o What were the factors taken into consideration?
o How much say did the parents seem to have in the choice?
 Ask your students if their parents have ever objected to someone they were dating.
o What consequences were there? Grounding, loss of car keys or cell phone, withholding of
allowance money?
o Did your students concede to their parents' wishes or defy them?
o How did it turn out? Has anyone had the experience of realizing in retrospect that their parents
were right all along?
Lysander vs Demetrius
 Give your students Handout #6: Lysander vs Demetrius
 Stage the opening scene in two different ways:
o First, with a Lysander who is respectful towards Egeus despite the disagreement, keeping his anger
under control.
 What effect does this have on the other characters in the scene? Does Egeus seem less
rational? How should Demetrius respond?
o Second, with a Lysander who is losing his temper, exasperated with Egeus, aggressive towards
Demetrius.
 Again, how does this choice affect the other characters? Should Demetrius respond with
equal aggression or attempt to show Lysander up by not rising to the bait? Does Egeus's
objection to Lysander seem more valid, or do your students think the audience will see
Lysander's temper as a natural response to Egeus's stubborn refusal to allow his courtship?
 Discuss:
o What different stories do each of your staging choices tell? Which choices make Demetrius most
sympathetic to the audience? Lysander? Hermia? Egeus?
Debate Hermia's Fate
 Divide your class in two, and assign one half to take Egeus and Demetrius's side and the other half to take
Lysander and Hermia's side.
Teacher's Guide – 1.1
EGEUS
Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
Hippolyta is also on stage during this scene,
though she has no lines after Egeus's entrance.
Did Egeus interrupt an intimate moment? How
should she react to the proceedings?
THESEUS
Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?
EGEUS
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
5
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
10
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers 15
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,
Be it so she; will not here before your grace
20
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
25
Immediately provided in that case.
THESEUS
What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
30
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
See page 67 for notes on embedded stage
directions in this scene.
Egeus notes that Lysander has written
(apparently poetry) to Hermia and that they have
exchanged gifts. This could indicate a betrothal or
a pre-contract on their part, whether Egeus
consented or not.
The bracelets of hair and the rings would
probably be most concerning to Egeus, as those
gifts imply a greater degree of intimacy. Rings,
then as now, often tokened an engagement.
How ancient is that ancient privilege? How
can the reactions of the other characters on stage
clue the audience in as to whether this rule is
obsolete (and therefore an extreme and possibly
inappropriate threat on Egeus's part) or still a
regular part of the law?
How might Demetrius attempt to show his
worth? How might Lysander react?
HERMIA
So is Lysander.
THESEUS
In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
HERMIA
I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
35
Does Lysander hear this? If so, how does he
react to being talked about as though he isn't there?
TEXTUAL VARIANTS
Speech Prefixes
As a teacher, you are in possession of one of the best-kept secrets in the world of Shakespeare scholarship and
education: There is no single, definitive, or universally accepted version of any of William Shakespeare’s plays. The plays as they
appear in your textbooks are the result of hundreds of years of influence from editors and printers. Long before
publishing companies began editing and translating texts for the modern English readers, printers had to decipher
hand-written cue scripts to approximate what appeared in the ever-changing performance scripts and on stage in
performance. Needless to say, printers sometimes made errors, and their changes and translations mean that what
we now know as Shakespeare actually covers of a lot of people’s input.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's plays for which more than one early modern edition exists. In
addition to the 1623 First Folio, we also have a quarto, printed in 1600 – closer to the probable date of composition
and first performance, somewhere between 1594 and 1596. Though these two versions are largely the same (unlike
the quartos and folio editions of Hamlet, which have dramatic differences), there are some notable variations,
including the assignation of speech prefixes in 5.1, when Duke Theseus is deciding on the post-wedding
entertainment.
See the two editions of the text on page 115. In the Quarto edition of the text, Theseus reads off the list of
potential entertainments and responds to himself. His servant Philostrate responds to the idea of watching the
Mechanicals' version of 'Pyramus and Thisbe.' In the Folio version of the text, however, Lysander reads off the list
to Theseus, and Egeus attempts to dissuade him. In the following activity, your students will explore both versions
of this scene.
Activity:
 Give your students Handouts #8A-B, transcriptions of the Quarto and Folio versions of A Midsummer
Night's Dream, 5.1.28-76.
o You may also wish to show them the facsimiles of the original, if you have access to a projector.
They can also be found on Internet Shakespeare Editions:
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/overview/play/MND.html
 Have your students stage each version of the scene.
o Remember that Hippolyta, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia are all also present in each scene.
 Discuss:
o What are the advantages and disadvantages of each version?
o What impression does the audience get of Theseus if he's answering himself as opposed to
answering Lysander?
o Is there another way that a production could choose to assign these lines? Some productions will
use the Folio dialogue break-down, but assign Lysander's lines to Philostrate instead. How would
this work? You may want to stage the scene a third way to determine its effectiveness.
FURTHER EXPLORATION
Have your students respond, in a journal entry or a short essay, to the idea of reassigning these speech prefixes. If
they were producing an edition of the text or a staged version of the play, how would they choose to assign those
lines? They should justify their choice with examples from the text.
Staging Challenges: Actors Playing Actors
Activity 2: Very Tragical Mirth





Divide your class into 4 groups.
Assign each group one of the 4 sections of 'Pyramus and Thisbe', Handouts #10A-D.
o 1: Quince/Prologue, Wall; Theseus, Lysander, Hippolyta, Demetrius; dumb-show only: Pyramus,
Thisbe, Moonshine, Lion
o 2: Pyramus, Thisbe, Wall; Theseus, Hippolyta, Demetrius
o 3: Lion, Moonshine, Thisbe; Theseus, Demetrius, Lysander, Hippolyta
o 4: Pyramus, Thisbe, Moonshine; Hippolyta, Demetrius, Lysander, Theseus
Have your students examine their sections according to some of our Basics: They should:
o Scan lines, and look for regularity and irregularity in meter. Where do the changes occur?
o Mark instances of rhetoric. What devices are most often used?
o Find embedded stage directions. How obvious or obscure are they?
o Determine opportunities to take lines to the audience. What extra opportunities does the on-stage
audience of the pairs of lovers present?
Stage your four parts of 'Pyramus and Thisbe'. Use the Teacher's Guide (page 118) to help them make
discoveries within the scene.
o You may want to make some component of this assignment take-home, so that your students will
have the opportunity to gather costumes and props for their performance.
o Make sure your students consider where they will place their on-stage audience. In chairs? Above,
in the balcony? Off to the side? Mixed in with the rest of the audience?
o Each group – and each character in each group – will need to make performance choices.
 How confident or frightened are the Mechanical actors?
 How seriously are they taking themselves? Do any of them actually have some surprising
talent?
 How do they react to the heckling from Theseus, Hippolyta, Demetrius, and Lysander?
 In what spirit are Theseus, Hippolyta, Demetrius, and Lysander heckling? Genuinely cruel
or more lighthearted? Do they intend for the Mechanicals to hear them or not?
o Each group can make different staging choices; the four pieces of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' need not be
congruent for the purposes of this activity.
Discuss:
o What different choices did the four groups make? Did any of the groups choose similar stagings or
character interpretations?
o How does the language of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' relate to the language of the rest of the play?
 Is the poetry a poor attempt at imitating the language of drama, or might it be Shakespeare's
self-mockery? (Or both?)
 What might it indicate that, in this section, the speaking forms of the high-class and lowclass characters are reversed, with the high-class characters speaking in prose and the lowclass characters in verse?
o What does Shakespeare reveal about the art and mechanics of acting in 'Pyramus and Thisbe'? What
does he reveal about audiences?
FURTHER EXPLORATION
Scholars sometimes see 'Pyramus and Thisbe' as Shakespeare's response to his own tragic romance, Romeo and Juliet,
which he probably wrote just before A Midsummer Night's Dream. If your students are also studying or have studied
Romeo and Juliet in the past, have them respond to this idea in a journal entry or short essay. Where might he be
poking fun at himself? What language in 'Pyramus and Thisbe' seems to imitate that in Romeo and Juliet?